Abstract
Dominant late-flowering mutant fwa is an epigenetic mutant that ectopically expresses FWA due to promoter hypomethylation. We have shown that ectopically-expressed FWA inhibits floral transition by interfering with the FT function through protein interaction. We further tested the possibility that FWA inhibits flowering through the transcriptional mis-regulation of its target genes. We performed microarray analysis using two fwa epialleles and 35S::FWA. The transcriptional profiles of these plants suggest that late-flowering phenotype of fwa is unlikely due to the mis-regulation of transcription. We also investigated the site of action of FT protein using FWA protein as a specific inhibitor of the FT function. We examined the tissue where FWA can exert its negative effect on flowering. Results of these analyses will be presented.
